Projects
The engine of deeper learning
Projects for meaning
Whether investigating ecosystems, cultures, the anatomy of a goat or a piano, or mathematical patterns, children collaborate on hands-on projects that connect ideas across multiple domains of development.
Projects can last a few weeks, months, or years.
As long as the research is meaningful and yields deeper knowledge, we follow the paths.
Here we are going to build a bank of examples with some of our favorites.
the piano lesson
There is an old piano in the Exploratorium. The piano swallowed a fly, oh my, perhaps she’ll ....
Give her body to science, that’s what happened!
The kindergarten students love music, they enjoyed playing the keys and seeing the felted hammers hit the strings. They concluded that a piano is a most remarkable instrument. Both string and percussion, it has a lot to say and a lot to offer to the kindergartener’s inquisitive mind.
Truly the piano is a treasure trove of mathematical facts, correspondence, and engineering!
Many questions arose as the students performed the piano dissection with surgical precision. How can you add and subtract sound? How many strings are there? Is there a string for each key? We measured the strings in different ways. What is the relationship between the diameter and length of the string and the sound it produces? Are there two strings that produce the same sound? What is the difference in sound between a string pinched with your fingers, hit by a hammer that is felted, or hit with the wooden hammer? Why are there so many parts held by so many screws, so many pegs, so many holes? Why is the back body so heavy?
The relationship between the parts of the piano also teaches our students team work and harmony. We could not dream of a better metaphor for the work of kindergarten.
The transformation of the piano will reach new heights as the piano project continues. Children are planning to use the parts to create a sculpture, puppets, and bird houses!
So many sunflowers
The sunflower project began with students planting seeds and carefully tending to them as they grew. Over several cycles, we observed differences in the sizes of sunflowers across seasons, which prompted discussions and investigations into the factors influencing plant growth. These observations provided an opportunity to explore topics such as seasonal changes and plant biology.
As the sunflowers matured, they attracted birds and bees, allowing us to study wildlife behavior and the relationship between plants and animals. On a frosty morning, students found that the bees appeared frozen on the plants. They picked up the bees and they were motionless. They quickly created a “bee hospital” to take care of them and channel the warmth of the sun. All but one recovered!
Observing the birds feeding on the seeds led us to harvest some sunflowers ourselves, experimenting with cooking the seeds to understand their use as a food source. In researching recipes, we found out that the whole flower head can be eaten when young. We cooked them in oil and enjoyed this new delicacy akin to artichokes. Of course, they belong in the same plant family!
Each step in the process generated new questions and areas of study. Why did the birds prefer certain seeds? What conditions improved the growth of sunflowers? Do the flowers provide warmth to the bees on cold nights? These investigations required the application of core skills like measuring, recording data, analyzing results, and problem-solving, reinforcing the academic and practical learning integral to the project.